tick tock
by ghettos
Summary: The clock on the wall seems to be mocking him. /The moments are slipping right through Walt Stone's fingers, and he wants nothing more than to live. -— Sadie/Walt; oneshot


**A/N **-— when I read the Serpent's Shadow, I was all hdhckajbidjsahxbkal WALT ackdshsidkjdcxi ANUBIS dhaskjcbaskuchaa SADIE hlukjdc,jbknja and sadly enough I didn't get many Zarter feels because I was too busy fussing over Sanubis and Salt.

I _mean,_ Carter and Zia are cute and all, but ANUBIS/WALT/SADIE love!triangle became ANUBISWALT/SADIE pairing which confused me greatly. I knew it would happen from the start, but . . . /sigh this is so confusing it's messing with my brain. I don't know what to think, my fingers are shaking and I can't type properly and I doubt I'll be able to write for a few days or more.

it confuzzles me. i'm confuzzled. my life is over.  
but luckily I had inspiration for this oneshot while reading the earlier parts of the book, so I had the plot sorted way before my brains turned to scrambled egg.

R squared why you do this to me.

* * *

**tick-tock**  
by _time-turned_

* * *

The clock on the wall seems to be mocking him.

There is a certain stagnancy to the air; it seems to ripple around him sluggishly, making it hard for him to breathe. The agony twisting his chest has always been there, but it's even worse today, wrenching his lungs from his torso and suffocating him.

The minute hand behind the glass face of the clock quivers.

The ticking sound emanating from the gears is almost unnerving, the constant _tick-tock; tick-tock _is a ever-present reminder that the minutes are slipping right through his fingers. _Tick-tock_, they seem to say. _Your time is running out. Tick-tock, Walt. Tick-tock._

He stands up and moves over to the mirror hanging next to the clock and regards himself through solemn eyes. His brow is slightly wrinkled from the pain; he eases out the creases with difficultly. _You can't let it show_, he reminds himself. _Not to her._

And then Walt Stone thinks of Sadie Kane, the way her smile can light up the entire room, the way her mouth is like a verbal freight train and he can't get a word in edgewise whenever she's around. But that doesn't matter, because when she doesn't talk it frightens him. Silence reminds him far too much of his own inevitable fate — death.

He stares at his reflection in the mirror for a while more, and with a start he realizes that Anubis is standing mere metres behind him, his eyes meeting his through the glass. "Hello, Walt."

Walt doesn't make any sound of recognition, so with a sigh Anubis goes on. "Have you considered my offer?"

Now Walt turns around and scrutinizes the god's face with his watery, soulful brown eyes, the whites of which are slightly yellowing — a new development which he is thankful Sadie hasn't noticed yet. "I — I don't want to make my decision yet," he admits, dropping his gaze from Anubis' pale features. "I — I want to know what she would think."

Anubis nods slowly. "I understand."

In the background, the clock's minute hand slides a few centimetres. _Tick-tock, Walt. Tick-tock._

* * *

"So . . . Anubis has been talking to me recently about —"

"I know what he's been talking to you about." Her voice is airy and distant, her eyes peering into the gold horizon. Colums of pink and violet streak across the sky, splaying against the silhouette of the sun. His heart skips a beat at the pain in her voice, and he asks her carefully:

"And . . . you don't like it?"

She turns to look at him, starting to tear. "Of course I don't like it."

And that's when his heart shatters into a million pieces and crashes to the floor, and Walt Stone wonders if Sadie Kane ever loved him. In the back of his head, imprinted into the depths of his mind, there's a constant ticking, like a bomb waiting to explode.

_Tick-tock, Walt. Tick-tock._

* * *

He gives her a kiss lighter than the brush of a butterfly's wing, which tingles on his lips even minutes later when her screams echo in the recesses and confirms of his mind. His fingers shape around his _shen_ amulet, and within a second she's by his side.

Her eyes are blazing, and without a word, she pulls him to her and presses his lips to hers. And just for a moment, he can forget about the imminent _tick-tock, tick-tock_ at the back of his head.

Because Sadie Kane tastes like eternity, and for a moment, time just stops.

* * *

_Tick-tock; your time is running out. Tick-tock, Walt. Tick-tock._

* * *

The incessant ticking fills the empty room, falling on nonexistent ears. The clock face reads 11:59 at night. The ticking speeds up. _Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock — _

There are stars glimmering in the midnight sky outside, like dashes of glitter against a velvet blanket. The ticking slows. _Tick-tock; tick-tock._ The shadows of Anubis seem to shroud the entire room in darkness. _Tick-tock, Walt. Tick — _

The clock's gears slow and come to a stop. _Tick_ — _tock._

Both gilt golden hands point to the number twelve.

It's a new day.

* * *

**A/N** -— at the end, I was trying to capture some of the symbolism that the Walt's timer has finally stopped, that there's no approaching deadline, no elapsing time. That definitely wasn't my best work, even though I _did_ slog rather long over this, and an extra apology for the spazzing in the beginning, eheh. n_n;

but do review, and please do _not_ favourite or alert without reviewing.


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